The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1849-51] CONDITION OF CLERKS IMPROVED. 179
it came under my superintendence it was found the accounts being
at length for the first time balanced that the annual loss of more
than ;i 0,000 had been converted into a small gain. It should
be mentioned that, in fetching up the arrear of accounts, debts,
which ought long since to have been claimed, were found owing by
various deputy postmasters, and had to be recovered, in some
instances, of their sureties ; a proceeding sometimes involving much
hardship. In one case, at Bilston, where the payment thus enforced
amounted to ^230, the postmaster had been dead some years.
Condition of Clerks Improved.
The Money Order Department being thus made self-supporting, I
felt justified in recommending not only a considerable increase in
the salaries of the probationary clerks, but also an addition to those
of the lowest grade on the staff. I was also enabled to extend and
regulate the leave of absence in the department. A few months
afterwards, the Postmaster-General thus described the latter measure
in the Upper House, reporting afterwards that the Lords were much
struck with it:
" The clerks in the Money Order Office were divided into classes,
and twelve were counted in a class where it was calculated that
eleven could do the work, so that by this means one might be always
absent, and thus every clerk enjoy a month's leave of absence in the
year. Now that was not an unjust nor a severe arrangement, but
much more just and impartial than the old system, by which one
clerk might be away for a considerable time, and another could get
no leave of absence at all. They were allowed to work for one
another, and in case of illness, if the absentee was away more than
a month, he might have his work done by paying for it. This had
been agreed to by all the classes but two ; and there was now in the
Money Order Department of the Post Office a case of a gentleman
who had been ill for eleven months during the last two years, and
his colleagues worked for him without a penny of remuneration,
knowing that he really was ill and unable to attend himself."
*
New Head of Department.
In the course of this period, on the sudden death of Mr. Earth,
the President of the Money Order Office, the vacancy was filled,
much to my satisfaction, by the appointment of Mr. Jackson, who
"Hansard," Vol. CXiv., p. 273.
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